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The Peralta Community College District’s Board of Trustees, at its annual organizational meeting held on December 13, 2016, swore in a new Trustee, Karen Weinstein (Area 6), pictured left, and also three reelected Trustees, Meredith Brown (Area 2), Bill Withrow (Area 1), Nicky González Yuen (Area 4). In addition, the Board elected new officers for 2017.

Julina Bonilla, representing Area 7, pictured right, was elected President, and Meredith Brown was elected Vice President. Jowel C. Laguerre, Ph.D, Chancellor of the District, was elected Board Secretary. Outgoing president, William Riley, who will continue to represent Area 5, and Cy Gulassa, retiring Trustee who represented Area 6, were honored for their service at the meeting.

Student Trustees Dave Ivan Cruz and Marquita Price will also continue to serve on the nine-member governing board.

“I am extremely honored to serve the Peralta community and look forward to cultivating high quality educational programming and training for our students,” said President Bonilla.

President Bonilla is a Solano Community College graduate and received her B. A. from U. C. Berkeley. She is a former Oakland elementary school teacher and eventually moved into workforce development providing education and job training to young adults in Northern California. Her community work and active memberships include serving as the Board President of Tradeswomen Inc. and in the National Women’s Political Caucus-AN. She has served as a member of the Oakland Workforce Investment Board and co-chair of the Oakland Youth Council. Currently, she is the Program Director of the West Oakland Job Resource Center. She was first elected to the board in 2014.

Vice President Brown was elected to the Peralta Board of Trustees in 2012 and has an extensive background in community service, including working as literacy volunteer for the Super Stars Literacy Program at Hoover Elementary School and serving as a delegate at the 2008 Democratic Convention. In addition, she is active raising awareness of the importance of early childhood education by working on the Alameda County Pre-School for All Campaign and working on a community task force for our local assembly representative. Brown is a graduate of Cornell University and also graduated from Boston University School of Law.

Karen Weinstein, who was elected to fill retiring Trustee Gulassa’s seat, has served on the Peralta District Citizens’ Oversight Committee, is a Board Member of the Berkeley Public Schools Fund and is Vice-Chair of the Berkeley Commission on the Status of Women. Trustee Weinstein serves as Co-Chair of the California Democratic Party’s Affirmative Action Committee and is a member-elect to the Alameda County Democratic Central Committee. She also serves as community liaison for the Dreamers and Undocumented Student Task Force. Trustee Weinstein received her Ph.D. in Counselor Education, with a concentration in college counseling from the School of Education, State University of New York at Buffalo. She is a Licensed California Psychologist.

The October 8th meeting of the Peralta Colleges Board of Trustees began with some exciting news from Romeo Garcia, president of the Peralta Colleges Foundation. Vice Chancellor Mike Orkin reported on efforts to make Peralta a hub for online community college education. And the meeting ended on an upbeat note by Trustee González Yuen.

The Peralta Community College District’s Board of Trustees, at its annual organizational meeting held on December 11, 2012, elected new officers for 2013. A newly elected Trustee, Meredith Brown, and three reelected Trustees, Nicky González Yuen, Cy Gulassa and Bill Withrow, were also sworn-in to serve for the next four years.

Cy Gulassa, representing Area 6, was elected President of the nine-member board, and Abel Guillén, who represents Area 7, was elected Vice President. Dr. José M. Ortiz, Chancellor of the District, was elected Board Secretary.

Meredith Brown, elected in November to represent Area 2, was sworn-in by Peralta Trustee Linda Handy. Nicky González Yuen, who represents Area 4, and Cy Gulassa were sworn-in by State Assembly Member Nancy Skinner.

Bill Withrow, who represents Area 1, was sworn-in by Joseph Bielanski, a member of the Board of Governors of the California Community Colleges and also the Institutional Effectiveness Coordinator at the Peralta Community College District.

Student Trustees serving on the Board are Sharon Clegg and Brian Cervantes.

A graduate of UC Berkeley with a M.A. in English, Cy Gulassa has taught at institutions such as Frostburg State University in Maryland and the Philadelphia College of Art, as well as teaching English at De Anza College for 30 years. He served as president of the Foothill-De Anza District Faculty Association for fifteen years and founded the Bay Faculty Association. He lectures on community college reform and governance issues and has published over 150 articles. In 1994, Gulassa was named Faculty Member of the Year and was honored by State Assembly and Senate resolutions and a commendation from President Clinton.

Abel Guillén is vice president of Caldwell Flores Winters Inc., where he has advised on the issuance of $2 billion in general obligation bonds for schools and colleges throughout California. In 2000, Guillén was a policy analyst for the Gore/Lieberman campaign. He has also been a research associate for the United States Department of the Treasury’s Community Development Financial Institutions Fund in Washington, D.C., and in the 1990s Guillén was in the Coro Fellows Program in Public Affairs and a Jesse M. Unruh Assembly Fellow. The first in his family to attend college, he has a Masters Degree in Public Policy and Management from the Goldman School of Public Policy at UC Berkeley and a B.A. in Sociology, also from UC Berkeley.

Meredith Brown has over 20 years of experience in complex litigation and representing public agencies. From 1989 to 1994 she practiced construction and business litigation on behalf of nationally recognized public and private clients with an Oakland law firm. From 1994 to 1999, Brown worked for a major San Francisco law firm representing a number of large and small public entities in the San Francisco Bay Area. In 2000, Brown established her own law firm, where she has continued to represent public and private clients She received her Bachelor of Science from Cornell University in 1983 and was a member of the Quill and Dagger Honorary Society. Brown received her Juris Doctor Degree from Boston University School of Law in 1988. She served as a clerk for United States Magistrate Joyce London Alexander, First Circuit in Boston, Massachusetts in 1988.

Brown’s community involvement includes service as a delegate to the 2008 Democratic National Convention, President of the Alameda County Democratic Lawyers Club, Vice President and past President of the Montclair Soccer Club, past Executive Board Member of the National Women Political Caucus – Alameda County North and a volunteer Judge Pro Tem for Alameda County.

The Peralta Colleges Board of Trustees voted to demonstrate its support of the principles of the Occupy Movement by beginning the process of moving its assets from large banking institutions.

The resolution, first introduced by Trustees Abel Guillén and Nicky González-Yuen, asks Peralta’s Chancellor, Wise E. Allen, to provide the Board of Trustees with a list of recommendations by January 31, 2012, on how best to bring about a timely, efficient and responsible redirection of financial resources maintained, influenced or controlled by the District and its subsidiary organizations, consistent with the spirit of this resolution’s clauses and consistent with all legal and administrative requirements and necessities

The Peralta Colleges – Berkeley City College, College of Alameda, Laney and Merritt Colleges in Oakland – serve 30,000 students, employ more than 1,500 teachers and staff, and have an annual budget of $140 million.

The Peralta Colleges (Berkeley City College, College of Alameda and Laney and Merritt Colleges in Oakland) Board of Trustees voted in its to demonstrate its support of the principles of the Occupy Movement by beginning the process of moving its assets from large banking institutions.

The resolution, first introduced by Trustee Abel Guillén, asks the Peralta’s Chancellor, Wise E. Allen, to provide the Board of Trustees with a list of recommendations by January 31, 2012, on how best to bring about a timely, efficient and responsible redirection of financial resources maintained, influenced or controlled by the District and its subsidiary organizations consistent with the spirit of this resolution’s clauses and consistent with all legal and administrative requirements and necessities

The Peralta Colleges – Berkeley City College, College of Alameda, Laney and Merritt Colleges in Oakland – serve 30,000 students, employ more than 1,500 teachers and staff, and have an annual budget of $140 million.

Welcome to another edition of Board Spotlight. The November 15 meeting started off with another strong showing by Save Our Schools. The Board received an extensive report on the development of an IT Master Plan by consultant Tony Tortorice. And Trustees Nicky González Yuen and Abel Guillén put forth a request for the Chancellor to investigate putting the Peralta Community College District moneys into community banks. Watch past Board Meeting videos here.

Peralta Colleges

Peralta Community College District is comprised of Berkeley City College, College of Alameda, Laney College, and Merritt College. Together they provide northern Alameda County a range of educational programs and life-long learning opportunities.